Method of and apparatus for metal cladding refractory brick



D. M. KERR METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK3- Sheets-$heet 1 Filed pct. 16, 1964 INVENTOR Iv? May 9, 1967 0. M.KERR 3,317,992

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK Filed Oct.16, 1964 ,5 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 91 1967 D. M. KERR 3,317,992

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDING REFRACTORY BRICK Filed Oct.16, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 6 United States Patent once 3,317,992 PatentedMay 9, 1967 3,317,992 I METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR METAL CLADDINGREFRACTORY BRICK Duncan Macmillan Kerr, Carmel, Calif., assignor to TheOhio Fire Brick Company, Oak Hill, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio FiledOct. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 404,305 3 Claims. (Cl. 29-450) This inventionrelates to new and useful improvements in metal cased refractory bricksused in industrial furnaces, and it is among the objects of thisinvention to provide a method of and apparatus for assembling the metalcladding material and the chemically bonded or burned brick in a mannerto provide a maximum gripping engagement of the casing with the brickand to interlock the same in their assembled position so that there canbe no relative movement between the assembled members.

It is -a further object of the invention to provide a metal casingconstructed of a pair of similar symmetrical half sections ofsubstantially U shape which, when assembled with the basic brick body,encases the latter substantially over the entire width and side faces ofthe brick, leaving the end faces of the basic brick material exposed andleaving a clearance space between the juxtaposed edges of the halfsections to prevent abutting contact which would cause misalignment ofthe casing members.

It is a further object of the invention to provide dimples or recessesin the molded chemically bonded brick of inverted frusto-conical shapeinto which portions of the metal casing are displaced by a die ofcomplementary shape to efiect a proper surface contact of the parts andprevent relative surface movement of the metal casing and brick body.

It is still a further object of the invention to provide for theassembly of the cladding material by feeding preformed U or channelshaped members to a hopper and arrange them with the sides of thechannel in alignment with the faces of the brick to engage and thenseparate the side elements by means of a spreader which engages bothlegs of the cladding material to force them apart for receiving themolded brick.

These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent froma consideration of the accompanying drawings constituting a part hereofin which like reference characters designate like parts and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view of chemically bonded basic bricktaken the line 11 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken transversley of the brick shownin FIGURE 1 through the center of a plurality of depressions or dimples;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of a basic brick with the cladding materialassembled;

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view thereof taken along the line 4-4 ofFIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled brick and claddingmaterial showing the normal annular position of the legs of the channelmembers before they are assembled on the molded material;

FIGURE 6 is a view in perspective of the channelshaped claddingmaterial;

FIGURE 7 a vertical cross-sectional view diagrammatically illustratingthe assembly hopper for the molded brick and cladding material;

FIGURE 8 is a view taken along the line 88 of FIG- URE 7 through thehopper; and,

FIGURE 9 is a plan view diagrammatically illustrating the mechanism forspreading the legs of the cladding material and pushing them in positionaround the ,faces of the molded brick.

In the drawing, the numeral 1 designates a molded chemically bonded orburned brick having depressions 2 with preferably inclined walls 3,there being eight of such depressions in a single brick, they beingspaced longitudinally and transversely in the manner shown in FIGURES 1and 2. Obviously the depressions may be staggered to avoid stressfractures in the molded brick.

In FIGURES 3 and 4, the finished brick is shown with the claddingmaterial 4 consisting of the channel shaped members shown in FIGURE 6having legs 5 in place. FIGURE 5 illustrates the normal inclination ofthe flanges 5 'which require that they be spread before assembling themaround the molded brick form, and the manner of spreading and assemblingthe cladding material will be described in connection with FIGURES 7through 9 of the drawing.

With reference to FIGURES 2 and 4, it will be noted that the depressions2 are molded in the brick, as shown in FIGURE 2, and the flanges 5 ofthe cladding material 4 are struck with a die to conform the metal tothe depres sion 2, as shown in FIGURE 4.

By pre-forming the recesses in the molded brick, there is no strain setup in the brick when the cladding material is displaced into therecesses by a punch or die in the assembly operation.

As is diagrammatically shown in FIGURE 7, the channel-shaped claddingmembers 4, with their inclined legs 5, are fed to a hopper generallydesignated by the numeral 7. The hopper is provided with inner walls 8and outer walls 9, the latter being inclined at 10, and flanges 11 areprovided on the inner walls 8 so that when a channelshaped claddingmember 4 is pushed into the hopper 7, one of the legs 5 will rest on theflange 11, causing the channel member to tilt and drop down the inclinedwall, as is diagrammatically shown by the dotted line in FIG- URE 7,which position it retains when it comes to rest on the flanges 12 of apiston operated plunger 13 having a fluid pressure cylinder 14. The samesupporting and pressing members are shown on opposite sides of themolded brick 1. Plungers 15 and 16, operated by cylinders 17 and 18,respectively, are movable in a vertical direction, as shown in FIGURE 7,to press the legs 5 of the cladding members against the faces of themolded brick.

It is evident from FIGURE 7 that when plungers 13 are retracted, thecladding members will drop down and come to rest on a base plate 19 inalignment with the molded brick 1, which is fitted in position by aplunger mechanism generally designated by the numeral 20, FIG- URE 8 ofthe drawing, which is in alignment with a molded brick, as shown indotted lines, which is pushed forward into the assembly hopper inalignment 'with the plunger mechanisms 14.

As shown in FIGURES 5 and 6, the legs 5 of the channel members 4 areconvergent and must be spread to envelop the faces of the brick withwhich they are assembled. This is effected by a pair of spreaders 25 and26 that are pivotally mounted at 27 and 28 on fixed brackets 29 and 30.The spreaders are mounted on bell crank levers 31 and 32 having pins 33and 34 that operate in guide slots 35 and 36 and guide plates 37 and 38,which are a pait of and movable with the pressure platens 1211. As shownin FIGURE 9, when the plunger 13 is actuated, the bell crank levers 31and 32 will pivot at 27 and 28 and cause the spreader elements 25 and 26to go in and out of the channel members timed with the movement of thechannel shaped cladding element into alignment with the molded brick 1.While in the spread position, the cladding elements are moved forward tothe position shown above the assembly device of FIGURE 9 with the edgesof the legs 5 spread to form the space 40 to prevent abutting of theedges of the cladding members.

With reference to FIGURE 8, punches 42, 43, 44 and 45 are shown in dieblocks 46 mounted above the die holder 47, fluid cylinders 48 beingprovided to actuate the punches to displace the metal to cause it toflow into the recesses 2 of the molded brick and effect intimate contacttherewith, as shown in the assembled brick on the righthand side ofFIGURE 8.

With reference to FIGURES 5 and 6, it will be evident that bypre-stressing the cladding channels to bias the legs 5 to a convergingposition, the legs 5 and the back portion 4 of the channels will propersurface contact of all parts of the cladding material and brick and theshaping of the recesses 2 of frusto-conical shape with the punch dies 44and 45, etc., of a shape to form the exact shape of these depressions inthe metal, any relative movement of the assembled cladding material andbrick is eliminated.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated anddescribed, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications may be made in the details of construction withoutdeparting from the principles herein set forth.

I claim:

1. The method of cladding brick with a pair of symmetrical steel casingsof substantially U shape which consists of:

(a) feeding a pair of U-shaped casings to the feed hopper of an assemblyjig with the legs of the U-shaped casings resting at the top of thehopper in a manner that when released the casings extending downwardlyand will drop by gravity and turn sidewise to align the legs of the pairof casings towards one another,

(b) spreading the legs of each of said pair of casings and moving themover the side and edges of a premolded brick that has recesses formedtherein,

(c) compressing said casings by bringing their legs together in intimateengagement with said pre-molded brick with the edges of the legsjuxtaposed, and,

(d) simultaneously striking the legs of the casing with a die inalignment with the recesses in the molded brick to displace the metalinto said recesses to interlock therewith.

2. Apparatus for cladding brick with a pair of channel shaped sheetmetal casings which consists of an assembly jig and dimpling press inalignment with a transfer station, means for conveying said channelcasings to said transfer station with the legs thereof extendingdownwardly, simultaneously feeding a molded brick to said assembly jigand dimpling press, said brick having dimples molded therein, means forfeeding said pair of said channel casing simultaneously from saidtransfer station to said assembly station in alignment with said. brickby gravity with their legs disposed towards one another in alignmentwith the molded brick, means for assembling said pair of channel casingsby separating the legs and pressing them around the side faces toenvelop said molded brick and means for displacing portions of metalfrom the channel legs into the dimples of the molded brick to interlocktherewith.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 in which the dimples in the brickare chamfered, having a sharp angle of approximately 30 and the strikingdie for the metal is of complementary shape to force the displaced metalinto intimate contact with the wall and bot-tom surfaces of the dimplein the brick to interlock therewith.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,457,766 12/1948Young 29235 X 2,682,703 7/1954 Schab. 2,736,187 2/1956 Coffman et al.52599 2,803,870 8/1957 Uphoif 29235 X 3,083,453 4/1963 Reynolds et al.29505 X CHARLIE T. MOON, Primary Examiner.

1. THE METHOD OF CLADDING BRICK WITH A PAIR OF SYMMETRICAL STEEL CASINGSOF SUBSTANTIALLY U SHPE WHICH CONSISTS OF: (A) FEEDING A PAIR OFU-SHAPED CASINGS TO THE FEED HOPPER OF AN ASSEMBLY JIG WITH THE LEGS OFTHE U-SHAPED CASINGS RESTING AT THE TOP OF THE HOPPER IN A MANNER THATWHEN RELEASED THE CASINGS EXTENDING DOWNWARDLY AND WILL DROP BY GRAVITYAND TURN SIDEWIDE TO ALIGN THE LEGS OF THE PAIR OF CASINGS TOWARDS ONEANOTHER, (B) SPREADING THE LEGS OF EACH OF SAID PAIR OF CASINGS ANDMOVING THEM OVER THE SIDE AND EDGES OF A PREMOLDED BRICK THAT HASRECESSES FORMED THEREIN, (C) COMPRESSING SAID CASINGS BY BRINGING THEIRLEGS TOGETHER IN INTIMATE ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID PRE-MOLDED BRICK WITH THEEDGES OF THE LUGS JUXTAPOSED, AND (D) SIMULTANEOUSLY STRIKING THE LEGSOF THE CASING WITH A DIE IN ALLIGNMENT WITH THE RECESSES IN THE MOLDEDBRICK TO DISPLACE THE METAL INTO SAID RECESSES TO INTERLOCK THEREWITH.